Horse collar and hame



(No Model.)

D. K. BILL. HORSE COLLAR AND HAME.

No. 517,021. Patented Mar. 27, 1894;

a COMPANY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID K. BILL, OF HILLSBOROUGH, OREGON.

HORSE COLLAR AND HAME.

SPECIFICATION forming'part of Letters Patent N 0. 517,021, dated March 27, 1894. v

Application filed May 12,1893. Serial No. 473,917. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID K. BILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hillsborough, in the county of Washington and State of Oregon, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Harness Collars and Hames; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

The special object of the invention is to make a horse-collar which shall be light, cheap and durable; flexible, cool and easy to the horse; which will not press'the windpipe in going up bill, will move easily with the horses shoulders, and will cause a minimum of friction.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a side-elevation; Fig. 2 a front elevation of the invention; Fig. 3 a detail view of one of the metallic stifieners, without its covering of leather; Fig. 4 a detail view of the upper connector, and Fig. 5 a similar view of the bottom connector.

In the drawings, A A represent the two sides of my combined collar and hames, B the upper connector, 0 the lower one, D D the stiffeners, and E E the tug-straps to which the traces are attached. Each side A is made of thick leather in one piece and smooth on the inside, while the texture of the leather is soft and flexible, the requisite stiffness being given to it by the metallic reinforcement D which extends from a to a. The ends a a a a are perfectly flexible and each provided with a vertical slot a in which is longitudinally entered the T-head on the connectors B O which are then turned at right angles. The connectors are thus easily attached or detached, while by simply taking out one T- head from one side of the collar, at top or bottom, the collar and hames may be slipped off the horse.

The stifieners D are laid on the outside of side A and a leather strip D sewed down over them, thus inclosing them in a pocket which protects them from the weather while the side itself protects them from perspiration. The short stiffeners d d are covered by the tug straps which are sewed to the sides A and a prolongation thereof-but they are not absolutely necessary though preferable.

The bottom connector is concaved to fit over the windpipe of the horse while the top one is similarly concaved to fit over a pad on the apex or ridge of the horses neck.

.The fit of this collar brings the line of draft somewhat higher on the horses neck than the ordinary collar and enables him to pull at greater advantage, while the concave connector at the bottom eifectually prevents any pressure upon the windpipe. It may be used equally well for a single or double team, for heavy or light draft, and very greatly facilitates the hitching up. One of my collars will outlast two ordinary collars, never gets out of repair and never needs an extra sweatpad. I preferably make them with halfround stiffeners of Norway or cast malleable iron and a fulllength tug strap without loop or buckle. The connectors may be covered if desired. It will be observed that the sides A A and stiifeners D Dare curved to conform to the natural shape of a horses shoulder, while they are made of different sizes to suit large, medium or small horses.

In adjusting the collar to a horses neck, the stifieners are bent so as to make a snug fitand be comfortable to the horse-whi1e the sides each move exactly with its own shoulder and hence produce scarcely any friction and no sore shoulders at all.

Having thus described all that is necessary .to a full understanding of my invention,what I claim as new, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is-

In combined collar and hames, the independent leather sections A A, having each a slot at top and bottom, the connectors B C, the stifieners D D having each an arm, (1, and the tug straps E E sewed over said arms, all combined, constructed and arranged substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signaturein presence of two witnesses.

DAVID K. BILL.

Witnesses:

W. W. MCKINNEY, W. W. TAYLOR. 

